The accreditation comes with recommendations for improvement, as it does for 58 percent of behavioral health organizations that apply, said Charlene Hill, a JCAHO spokeswoman.

"Accreditation is a voluntary process, so the community should be proud when a health care organization seeks accreditation because that's a commitment to continued quality improvement,'' she said.

The accreditation procedure cost about $19,000.

JCAHO, located in suburban Chicago, is the nation's main accrediting body for hospitals and other health-related organizations. About 1,400 behavioral health organizations are accredited, compared to 20,000 hospitals, Hill said.

Broward County's been in the substance abuse treatment business for 26 years. Its $12-million budget pays for four programs, including a 35-bed detoxification unit in downtown Fort Lauderdale and a 100-bed residential treatment program in Coral Springs. The county gets referrals from local homeless and judicial agencies as well as from other treatment programs. Patients pay on a sliding scale fee depending on their income.

This is the first time the county's program has been accredited.

Earlier this decade, the program was in trouble, said Angelo Castillo, Broward County's Human Services director.

"There were a lot of concerns about the quality of the program, whether the program was operating well,'' he said.

The county had a run-in with Medicaid, a joint state-federal program that provides health coverage to the poor, and had to pay back $200,000, said Michael De Lucca , assistant director of the county's human services department.

Those past missteps have made this accreditation all the sweeter, Castillo said.

"It's a big deal for us ... it confirms that the program lives up to national standards,'' he said.

"It can increase an organization's competitive edge in the marketplace,'' Hill said.

It also enhances staff recruitment, improves access to liability insurance coverage and enhances community confidence, she said.

"It now puts us in a different league then we were before,'' De Lucca said, noting that it may open doors to new sources of money.

Shana Gruskin can be reached at sgruskin@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6537.